A handmade olive oil soap with chamomile and lemongrass, from Daki, a small Portuguese artisan soap works.
An unusual pairing that works
Chamomile and lemongrass pull in opposite directions, which is exactly why they suit each other. Chamomile is soft, hay-like and faintly apple-sweet — on its own it can be almost too gentle to register. Lemongrass is sharp, green and insistently citrus. Together the lemongrass gives the chamomile edges and the chamomile stops the lemongrass becoming shrill.
The result is fresh rather than sweet, which makes it a better morning bar than most botanical soaps.
Why olive oil, and why handmade
Soap is made by saponification: an oil reacts with an alkali and becomes soap plus glycerine, and the reaction completes in the finished bar, so no lye remains in it.
The difference is the glycerine. Industrial manufacturers extract it and sell it separately, since it is valuable in its own right — part of why commercial bars can leave the skin tight. A cold-process handmade soap keeps all of it, and glycerine draws water to the skin. That is the main reason a handmade bar feels gentler.
Olive oil makes a particularly mild soap with a creamy, low-bubble lather — the basis of Castile soap, and the gentlest of the common soap oils.
Making it last
Keep it out of standing water. The single thing that decides whether a handmade bar lasts a month or a week. A bar left in a puddle absorbs water, goes soft and dissolves. Use a draining dish or slatted rack and let it dry fully between uses — kept dry, olive oil soap hardens and improves with age.
Note
For external use. Avoid the eyes. Chamomile is in the daisy family, so anyone allergic to ragweed, chrysanthemums or marigolds should test a small area first. Handmade soaps vary slightly between batches.